Exclusive: Bus driver spotted missing boy in Waikiki

Glen Nakamura was driving his bus down Kuhio Avenue past Seaside Avenue when he spotted the little boy walking by himself.

“He stuck out like a thumb because at that time, hardly anybody was around in Waikiki in that area,” Nakamura said.

He kept an eye on him for a couple of blocks and approached the boy at the bus stop.

“I get out of my seat, I go to the boy and talk to him and ask him if there’s anybody around him, any adults or any supervision. He doesn’t say anything,” Nakamura said.

He says the child did listen and stayed put as Nakamura called the police. But as they waited, he says the child never said anything.

Nakamura says the kid was walking so fast that it is possible that he might have run and walked all the way to Waikiki for about an hour that he was missing.

Officials with the bus company have been looking through video cameras from other buses just in case the child boarded one, but so far have not seen footage of him getting on.

What they have seen is how the boy was fast enough to keep up with the bus for a couple of stops.

“We believe so because of the way the boy walked from Kuhio and Launiu to Seaside in that short a time, there is a possibility,” said Ralph Nishimura, General Superintendent of Transportation with Oahu Transit Services.

Nakamura noticed that the boy also knew how to cross the street and is just relieved that he was reunited with his parents.

“I’m happy that the child is alright. He’s safe that’s the main thing and that the bus company can do something for him,” Nakamura said.

Officials with the bus company plan to look through more video footage to see if the child may have boarded one of the buses.